Removing MDM profile from an iPad that I have legally purchased

The question isn't whether you legally own the ipad or not. The question is did the seller follow apple's procedure for turning over the ipad to you. With an mdm, there may not be a way of removing control from an mdm. I do not know.

You should talk to the seller and ask them to remove their control over the device.

If you can do what you want, I wouldn't worry too much. You ipad may eventually brick. Might need to connect to the server to update software or to recover from serious software problem.

What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5661

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351

Verify that your ios device is free of the activation lock.

How to check if the activation lock is active on a device

https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

In what situation would this be the case? MDM Supervision has to either come from DEP pointing to an MDM server, or a supervision profile from Apple Configurator. In either case, a restore and setup as new will not have the profile. This would be extremely easy for him to test. For a DEP device, it would have to be purchased by the Company and registered with their DEP account at the time of purchase. OP indicated he bought the device himself, and then allowed the school to supervise after the fact, which points to Configurator. I run MDM for several hundred devices and have some experience with the process.

You can remove the MDM by going to Settings > General > Profiles & Device Managament then tap on the school's MDM server profile then tap Remove Management then enter your iPad passcode if you have one. Do this at your own risk since your school will be notified that you removed their MDM profile from your iPad. Hope I helped :)

An MDM profile will not persist through a restore and setup as new, unless they registered your device in DEP (which shouldnt be possible if you bought it yourself). You cannot restore from a backup (as far as I know), because the backup is still supervised.

You need to take it to an apple store with proof of purchase. Call apple store for details.

Seems more like a dispute with your school. Are you graduating? You may not be able to do certain function like log onto the internet without the profile.

R

Sure, but the result is the same. Profiles do not persist through a restore if he sets up as new. Devices have to be re-supervised during the setup process, and this will only happen automatically if enrolled in DEP.

DEP has more to do with them purchasing it under their PO account with Apple. The easiest way to tell would be to restore, setup as new, and see if it asks for you credentials for your school during the setup process. If it doesnt, you're probably good to go. Once the restore is complete, go to Settings-->General and look for any profiles installed.

Lol... My iPad has this "This iPad is supervised and managed by ****" (my school's name)

I would be a little cautious. Could end up with a non-working iDevice and if you school refused to restore it you'd be sol.

The obvious re-install of a supervised device is blocked somehow. That is my strong impression from reading these forums.

R

The key difference though, is that you purchased them. OP said he purchased the device itself, which shouldnt be enrollable. I agree, legacy devices were added for us as well, but only things we purchased through approved channels.

Hi aleachi99

Are you using your iPad for work? In that case, the school can add your device to an MDM server to track (may be) your device. To the extent of my knowledge, it is not possible to add a device to an MDM without them having the device. I mean, the enrollment process is like this: they send an enrollment request from the MDM server. An Email is received with a link that will guide through the enrollment process. If the link is clicked from your iPad, a profile is installed on your device.

Why don't you try Settings > General > Profile where you can remove an MDM profile (only if your device is not supervised). When the profile is removed, they can never monitor or control your device. If your device is supervised, then there are fewer possibilities that a profile can be removed. I such case, you'll have to tell them to remove your device from MDM. To check whether your device is supervised, go to Settings > General > About and you can see something like "This iPad is supervised" or "This iPad is managed by *** MDM".

After the device is removed from MDM, they cannot enroll it again even if they have the serial number with them. They should have access to the device for adding it to MDM.

Or, they used apple configurator to supervise the device.

There are two ways to supervise: apple configurator or DEP.

Nor do I know if you can get around this stuff by going to an apple store. I wasn't thinking before. 😢

R

Actually, with the advent of iOS 9, a device can be added to DEP after the purchase. We had several iPads that were managed individually as they were 1st gen Minis that we purchased before we used DEP. We have now added all of them to DEP since. This definitely needs to be discussed with the school.